How IDNs work

Technically, the “special” characters are encoded using a conversion table. This is why an IDN domain name will begin with the four characters xn––. For example: bébé.eu becomes xn-–bb-bjab.eu. (This is also why you can't otherwise register domain names with hyphens in the third and fourth position.)

Note that while email addresses that use an IDN domain name will work with most modern webmails and email programs (if it does not work with yours, please update your email program to the latest version), you must use the xn–– version of your domain name when logging into Gandi's webmail or when configuring your email program.